The future soldier will be equipped with a comprehensive array of electronic devices that provide him with C4I (Command, Control, Communications, Computer, Intelligence) situational awareness and targeting capability. The equipment must be both sophisticated and rugged.
Common to every piece of electronic equipment is its requirement for power. Electrical power is provided to all man portable electronic devices via a battery source that is typically small cell designs such as commercially designated AAA, AA, C and various military battery configurations. All the devices have different power needs and therefore the batteries for each device have different voltages, current and power cell size requirements.
When a soldier is tasked with a mission he must replenish all the batteries in all of the electronic devices he will be carrying. The soldier must also determine if the duration of the mission will require him to carry spare batteries for his equipment especially if he will be dismounted and away from support for the duration of the mission.
Contactless inductive energy transfer is known in the art as a convenient way to transfer energy. See for example U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,490,176 and 5,959,433, and published U.S. patent Applications, Publication Nos. US2004/0189246 and US2004/0145343. What is addressed are ways to charge a battery in a discrete electronic device such as a cell phone, computer mouse, tooth brush, etc using a statically placed charger where the coil or loop in the charger is typically powered from mains electrical power so as to induce a current in the coil or loop in the discrete electronic device when the device and charger are in proximity. Typically the current in the coil or loop of the electronic device is rectified so as to provide direct current to charge the battery of the device.
What is neither taught nor suggested, and it is one object of the present invention to provide, is the use of a charging coil or loop or multiple charging coils or loops mounted to an article of apparel such as for example military load carriage vests, tactical pants, shirt, utility webbing or other load carriage purpose-designed apparel or the pockets associated with same, wherein the main power source for the charging coil or loops is a portable DC battery(ies) and carried on the users, for example on the apparel, so that various and multiple electronic devices having inductively chargeable batteries may be operatively carried and simultaneously on a demand basis charged while in use or being merely carried by a user such as a soldier.
Existing and future electronic equipment currently have a variety of wire harnesses between the devices for the purpose of power and data transmission. In order to standardize both power and data transmission connectors NATO has established a working group to identify and resolve how different countries connect their soldier mounted electronic equipment and to develop standard connector configurations.
With the advent of militarized Bluetooth®, USB and other wireless communication protocols, data transfer wires between soldier carried portable electronic devices are being rendered obsolete, however the provision of power to these devices still requires hard wired or breakaway umbilical power cords, or device specific battery replacement that requires a comprehensive battery logistic supply plan.